“There’s that damn word again,” Rory muttered.
“One you seem to have a problem with,” Kade observed, sending her a smile. He really was a very good-looking man, Rory noticed. Not Mac hot, but still...phew!
“Am I being unreasonable?” she demanded, slapping her hand repeatedly against the dashboard. “The man has been injured! It was serious. I’m trying to protect him.”
“Yeah. And he’s asking you to trust him to know what he’s doing,” Kade responded, gently removing her hand from his dashboard and dropping it back into her lap. “It’s too expensive a car to be used as a punching bag, honey.”
Rory winced. “Sorry.” She shoved her hands under her thighs to keep them from touching something she shouldn’t and sighed heavily. “He makes me nuts.”
Kade laughed. “I suspect he feels the same way about you.” He tapped his finger against the steering wheel before turning his head to look at her. “Mac never asks anyone for anything.”
Rory looked puzzled, not sure where he was going with this.
“He injured his arm because he tried to move a fridge on his own, something either Quinn or I or any of his teammates, coaching staff, support crew, maintenance guys or office staff would’ve helped him with...had he asked.”
“Try living with him for nearly two months,” Rory muttered, reminded of all the arguments she’d had with Mac. “I think it has something to do with the fact that his mother was emotionally, probably physically, neglectful of him. He learned not to ask because his needs were never met,” she mused.
Kade switched lanes and sent her an astonished look. “He told you about his mother?”
“Not much. A little.” Rory shrugged.
“Holy crap.”
Rory shrugged again, brushing off his astonishment. “Not asking for help is stupid. Everyone needs someone at some time in their lives.”
“I agree. I’ve been trying to tell him that for years,” Kade said, turning into her street. He pulled up behind a battered pickup and switched off the growling engine. Pushing his sunglasses up into his hair, he half turned in his seat. “So, we agree that we are talking about a man who is ridiculously independent and stupidly self-sufficient and hates asking for a damn thing?”
“Precisely,” Rory agreed, reaching for her bag, which sat on the floor by her feet. She dug around for her house keys and pulled out the bunch with a flourish. “Found them! Yay.”
Kade’s hand on her arm stopped her exit from the car. When she looked back at him, his expression was serious. “Interesting then that our self-sufficient, hate-to-ask-for-anything friend asked you to be there at the practice game, asked you to trust him. Practically begged you...”
Rory sucked in a breath and scowled at him. “Oh, you’re good,” she muttered as she stepped out of the car.
“So I’m frequently told,” Kade smugly replied. Rory shook her head as she climbed out of the low seat, charmed and amused despite the fact that he’d backed her into a corner. She turned back to look at him and he grinned at her through her open window. “Frequently followed by...can we do that again?”
Rory slapped a hand across her eyes.
“I’ll leave your name with security. Day after tomorrow. Four p.m.”
Rory managed, using an enormous amount of self-control, not to kick his very expensive tires as he pulled away.
* * *
Mac couldn’t help glancing around the empty arena as he hit the rink, as at home on the ice as he was on his own two feet. Stupid to hope that she’d be here. Intensely stupid to feel disappointed. There was nothing between them except some hot sex and a couple of conversations.
He was happy the way he was, happy to have the odd affair with a beautiful woman, happy with his lone-wolf lifestyle. Wasn’t he?
Not so much.
Mac glanced at the empty seats and banged his stick on the ice in frustration. One thing. He’d asked her one damn thing and she’d refused. Talk about history repeating itself... It served him right for putting himself out there. He’d learned the lesson hard and he’d learned the lesson well that when it came to personal relationships, when he asked, he didn’t always receive. With his mother he’d never received anything he needed.
His childhood was over, he reminded himself.
Besides, it didn’t matter, he had an investor to impress, a team to save, Vernon’s legacy to protect. Mac glanced over toward the coach’s area and immediately saw Quinn and Kade standing, like two mammoth sentries, on either side of a slim woman and an elderly man who bore a vague resemblance to Yoda. The woman wore jeans and a felt hat and the older man was dressed in corduroy pants and a parka. These were their investors? Where were the suits, the heels, the briefcases?